Tag: Kevin Ollie

Nets’ Kevin Ollie discusses Dennis Schroder’s leadership ability

Prior to Wednesday’s game against the Toronto Raptors, Brooklyn Nets interim head coach Kevin Ollie spoke on Dennis Schroder’s leadership.

NEW YORK — Brooklyn Nets guard Dennis Schroder has been a welcomed addition to the team ever since he came to Brooklyn from the Toronto Raptors in a trade deadline deal. Not only has Schroder played well for a Nets team that needed his production at the lead guard spot, but he contributed to a team in another way as well.

“Yeah, he was like a leader right when he got in,” Nets interim head coach Kevin Ollie said prior to Wednesday’s matchup against the Toronto Raptors. Schroder is averaging 14.4 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 5.9 assists per game while shooting 42.6% from the field and 42.1% from three-point range during his time in Brooklyn, but he’s bringing his decade worth of experience in the NBA.

“I think he brings it like a championship mentality,” Ollie explained. “Going on that (Western Conference Finals) run with the (Los Angeles) Lakers last year then doing what he did in the world cup with Germany and winning gold, he just has a natural ability to lead, ability to win.”

There have been plenty of instances this season where Schroder has pulled a player aside or has had long conversations with other rotation players on the team in an effort to figure something out moving forward. Schroder has one more season left on his contract, he’ll be paid a little more than $13 million, and the Nets will be happy to have his services.

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Nets’ Kevin Ollie gives his plans for younger players to end this season

Before Saturday’s game against the Pistons, Brooklyn Nets interim head coach Kevin Ollie said what he’s looking for to end this season.

NEW YORK — The Brooklyn Nets are nearing the end of their 2023-24 season sooner than they hoped now that they have been eliminated from the Eastern Conference play-in tournament. While Brooklyn is assured of not going to the postseason for the first time since the 2017-18 season, they are still looking for certain players to perform.

“Yeah, just like they’ve been doing,” Nets interim head coach Kevin Ollie said of the younger players, including the rookies, prior to Saturday’s game against the Detroit Pistons. Over the past few games, Brooklyn has seen strong performances out of Trendon Watford, Noah Clowney, Cam Thomas, and Jalen Wilson.

“They’ve been playing great,” Ollie explained. “They’ve been hustling. They’ve been playing the game plan. Don’t try to do anything outside of your role, but continue to try to expand your role at the same time and be a star in it. And just play the right way.”

While Ollie did not give any indication of whether he will be lessening the minutes of some of his veteran players, it’s clear that he intends to use the rest of this season to see where some of the younger players are at. If the Nets are able to get a sizable lead on the banged-up Pistons, it’s possible that those younger players will get more time on the floor.

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Nets potential head-coaching candidates revealed

Jake Fischer of Yahoo! Sports recently revealed some of the potential candidates for the Brooklyn Nets’ permanent head-coaching position.

The Brooklyn Nets are nearing the end of their 2023-24 season and as a result, they will have to start thinking about how to improve the team this upcoming offseason. One of those important matters will be addressing who will be the head coach next season to hopefully lead Brooklyn back to the postseason.

Currently, the Nets are led by interim head coach Kevin Ollie, someone that has done a solid job leading this Brooklyn franchise following the firing of its head coach, Jacque Vaughn, during the All-Star break. However, it has been noted plenty of times throughout this season that the Nets’ search for a head coach will be far-ranging given how important that role is.

According to Jake Fischer of Yahoo! Sports, Brooklyn is likely to consider experienced coaches like Mike Budenholzer and James Borrego, two people who have ties to the San Antonio Spurs just like Nets general manager Sean Marks did. Budenholzer was an assistant coach for the Spurs beginning with the 1996-97 season until he landed his first head-coaching job with the Atlanta Hawks starting with the 2013-14 season.

Budenholzer coached in Atlanta for five seasons before becoming the head coach for the Milwaukee Bucks beginning with the 2018-19 season, a tenure that saw him win the NBA championship in the 2020-21 season.

Borrego became the head coach of the Charlotte Hornets starting with the 2018-19 season after spending the prior eight seasons mostly as an assistant coach with the New Orleans Hornets, Orlando Magic (30 games as the interim head coach), and the Spurs. Borrego spent four seasons as the head coach for the Hornets before being relieved of his duties after the conclusion of the 2021-22 campaign.

Fischer also said that the Nets will “consider” some of the same newer candidates to the coaching pool that the Charlotte Hornets and the Washington Wizards will be looking into as well.

Per Fischer, some of those candidates are Denver Nuggets assistant David Adelman, Sacramento Kings assistant Jordi Fernandez, Boston Celtics assistant Charles Lee, and Phoenix Suns assistant Kevin Young.

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Nets’ Cam Thomas gives his take on Kevin Ollie’s performance

After Wednesday’s 115-111 win over the Indiana Pacers, Brooklyn Nets guard Cam Thomas gave his opinion on interim head coach Kevin Ollie.

NEW YORK — Brooklyn Nets interim head coach Kevin Ollie took over Brooklyn at a time when the team was trying to do what it could to turn the season around. Ollie filled in after Jacque Vaughn was fired during the All-Star break and while his record isn’t stellar, a key player believes that Ollie has done a good job.

“Yeah, he’s done a great job,” Nets guard Cam Thomas said after Wednesday’s 115-111 win over the Indiana Pacers. While Brooklyn did its job by stepping up to beat the Pacers, they were ultimately eliminated from the Eastern Conference play-in tournament because the Atlanta Hawks beat the Detroit Pistons.

“I mean, it’s only so much you can do at the All-Star break,” Thomas explained. “I mean, he can’t really change too much. We’re already 50, 55 games in. Not much you can really change, because that would be a tough thing to do. But, I feel like for what he’s had to deal with and what the situation brought, he’s done an amazing job. So, it’s been great.”

Over the course of this season, the Nets were 21-33 (38.9%) under Vaughn before he was dismissed and Brooklyn is 9-14 (39.1%) under the direction of Ollie. With that being said, there is a difference in how the Nets have been playing under Ollie.

Under Vaughn, Brooklyn was 19th in the NBA in offensive rating (114.5) and 21st in defensive rating (116.8). After Ollie took over, the Nets regressed to 24th in offensive rating (109.7), but improved to 13th in the league in defensive rating (112.8).

Obviously, Ollie is working with most of the same personnel that Vaughn was working with, but Ollie is also dealing with the absences of Spencer Dinwiddie and Royce O’Neale while taking advantage of the addition of Dennis Schroder. As this season gets close to the end, Ollie has the support of one of the team’s best players.

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Nets’ Kevin Ollie gives updates on Cam Johnson and Dennis Smith Jr.

Prior to Friday’s game against the Bulls, Brooklyn Nets interim head coach Kevin Ollie gave updates on Cam Johnson and Dennis Smith Jr.

NEW YORK — The Brooklyn Nets are still in the race for the 10th and final seed in the Eastern Conference play-in tournament, but the amount of time they have is dwindling. As Brooklyn attempts to continue its winning ways, it seeks to do so without two key rotation players, but they are progressing towards a return.

“They’re progressing well,” Nets interim head coach Kevin Ollie said of forward Cam Johnson (left big toe sprain) and guard Dennis Smith Jr. (right hip synovitis) prior to Friday’s game against the Chicago Bulls. Both players have been ruled out for Friday’s tilt against the Bulls and that marks their third consecutive game that they have missed with their respective injuries.

“I know CJ (Johnson) sees our docs tonights or tomorrow and we’ll get an update on him,” Ollie said. “June (Smith) is still kind of working through through that injection and (we) look forward to seeing him come back on the court. Hopefully soon.”

Brooklyn’s injury report is getting lengthy these days as Johnson and Smith are out in addition to season-ending injuries to Ben Simmons, Dariq Whitehead, and Keita Bates-Diop. As the Nets try to finish this season strong in the hopes of making the postseason, they will be hoping for a quick return of Johnson and Smith.

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Nets’ Kevin Ollie gives update on Cam Thomas’ back issue

After Monday’s 96-88 win at the Toronto Raptors, Brooklyn Nets interim head coach Kevin Ollie gave an update on Cam Thomas’ back issue.

The Brooklyn Nets are fighting against the odds to get past the Atlanta Hawks for the 10th and final seed in the Eastern Conference play-in tournament. While it’s unlikely that Brooklyn will be able to get into the play-in tournament because of the gap between them and the Hawks, the Nets took care of business at the Toronto Raptors.

The Nets beat the Raptors on Monday 96-88, but it took some doing despite the fact that Toronto was missing a significant number of their better players. Brooklyn was dealing with some injuries of their own, including the late scratch of super-scoring guard Cam Thomas shortly before tip-off due to lower back tightness, per Brian Lewis of the New York Post.

What made Thomas’ absence surprising was because he was not on the injury report at any point leading up to the game so for him to be ruled out, something seemed to happen during the pregame warmups. Nets interim head coach Kevin Ollie addressed Thomas’ late scratch after the win and his update on Thomas was mostly encouraging.

Ollie said that Thomas suffered back spasms during the pregame warmups and that’s why he was ruled out for the contest. Ollie also said that he isn’t sure if Thomas will be able to go for Wednesday’s game at the Washington Wizards yet, but that the team will do what it can to make Thomas’ back more comfortable by “giving him a couple extra pillows” as he recovers.

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Nets’ 105-93 loss at Knicks comes down to another poor fourth quarter

After Saturday’s 105-93 loss at the New York Knicks, Brooklyn Nets interim head coach Kevin Ollie spoke on the team’s competitive stamina.

NEW YORK — One of the common themes throughout this season for the Brooklyn Nets has been faltering in the fourth quarter after a good performance through the first 36 minutes. The Nets seem to find a different way to lose a game in the end and that has been there all season, unfortunately.

“They went for every offensive rebound, got every offensive rebound, got every loose ball, they just wanted it more,” Nets interim head coach Kevin Ollie said after Saturday’s 105-93 loss at the New York Knicks. Brooklyn went into the fourth quarter trailing 80-77, but once the fourth quarter happened, things got away from the Nets in a hurry.

“In those times, we got to go get it,” Ollie said. “The balls are there, we got to go hit first. We have to do those things to win and I know I sound like a broken record, but that’s what we have to do.”

What has been a broken record is Brooklyn’s inability to solve the issues that have plagued them this entire season and some of those problems come down to desire. While the Knicks out-rebounded the Nets by just a small margin of 47-41, New York was able to grab 16 offensive rebounds and turn those into second-chance points, a significant amount of which came from behind the three-point line.

Not to mention that Brooklyn turned the ball over 15 times, leading to 19 points for the Knicks that proved instrumental to their winning cause as well. The Nets are not a big team, but some of the offensive rebounds came down to just the Knicks racing for those opportunities.

“We have to have competitive stamina and I talked to them about that today. How’s your stamina? Not just your wind playing basketball, just your competitive stamina. That has to be there every single minute for us to win,” Ollie said.

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Nets’ Kevin Ollie makes an interesting lineup change at Bucks

In Thursday’s 115-108 loss at the Milwaukee Bucks, Brooklyn Nets interim head coach Kevin Ollie made an interesting lineup change.

The Brooklyn Nets are trying to play their way into the Eastern Conference play-in tournament and they are running out of games to make up the ground between them and the Atlanta Hawks. As such, it seems that Brooklyn is willing to try anything to turn things around, including their rotation.

Heading into Thursday’s 115-108 loss at the Milwaukee Bucks, the Nets were going to be shorthanded once Dorian Finney-Smith was ruled out due to left ankle soreness. Things could have been much worse given that starting center Nic Claxton was listed as questionable due to an illness, but he was good to go by the time the game started.

What was surprising about Thursday’s game was the fact that backup center Day’Ron Sharpe, who played in every game that he was active for this season, did not step foot on the floor against the Bucks. From the looks of it, it seemed that Sharpe’s minutes went to an unlikely player: rookie first-round pick Noah Clowney. This was Sharpe’s first DNP of the season.

Clowney played 14 minutes and put up five points, four rebounds, and was a +10 during his time on the floor as he held up well against Milwaukee’s formidable frontline of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Brook Lopez. Nets interim head coach Kevin Ollie spoke after the game about why he chose to go in that direction:

“It’s just about sacrifice and that was the conversation. I told him beforehand what I was going to do. Day’Ron’s probably not happy with it, I wouldn’t be happy with it, but I understand this is a team game and we have to be a team and I wanted to see Noah tonight and that’s what I went with.”

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Nets’ Kevin Ollie gives passionate response about team playing together

After Saturday’s 121-100 loss at the Indiana Pacers, Brooklyn Nets head coach Kevin Ollie gave a passionate response about playing together.

The Brooklyn Nets have been trying to regain their identity ever since they began this season with a 13-10 record, but have not yet gotten back to their winning ways. While interim head coach Kevin Ollie, along with other players, has been repeatedly saying that the team has to play with energy and pride, there are still instances where the team fails to play with either of those characteristics.

The Nets lost at the Indiana Pacers on Saturday 121-100 and one of the main reasons for the loss was Brooklyn’s lost of focus in the second half compared to how they played in the first half. The Nets went into halftime trailing 59-57 thanks to some big minutes from Dorian Finney-Smith and Cam Johnson, who combined for 20 points, five rebounds, and three steals.

In the second half, specifically the fourth quarter, things fell of the rails for Brooklyn due to the inability to stop the Pacers in any facet of their game, especially scoring in the paint. After a certain point, it was clear that the Nets were unable to maintain the focus and intensity that they had in the first half as Indiana continued to get to the basket and get out in transition.

After the loss, Ollie was asked about what comes first: do the players trust each other and then, the winning results begin to happen? Or, do the winning results happen and then, the players trust each other? Ollie gave an passionate answer:

“We’ve seen it. We’ve seen it in Cleveland, we’ve seen it in different games, we’ve seen it in both Atlanta games, I mean chicken or egg, you’ve seen it before. So, how can we be more consistent with that? We’ve seen the other results when we do it that way, where we turning the ball over, we’re not taking care of the ball, when we’re not getting defensive rebounds. So, like I keep saying, our margin of error is very short, it’s very limited, and we got to play the right way.”

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Nets’ Kevin Ollie speaks on Jalen Wilson’s multi-year contract

Prior to Saturday’s matchup against the Atlanta Hawks, Brooklyn Nets interim head coach Kevin Ollie spoke on Jalen Wilson’s multi-year deal.

NEW YORK — The Brooklyn Nets have had a tough past few months as they went from a team looking to overcome the odds to a franchise who may be as expected. However, one of the great stories that came out of this season was the fact that 2023 second-round pick Jalen Wilson had his Two-Way deal converted into a multi-year contract on Friday.

“Just stability, just a constant professional, get in a gym early, leave late, all those different things that everybody says, but they’re true,” Nets interim head coach Kevin Ollie said of Wilson prior to Saturday’s game against the Atlanta Hawks. While Brooklyn confirmed that they signed Wilson to a multi-year contract while not publicizing the exact terms of the agreement, Michael Scotto of HoopsHype reported that the deal is for three seasons.

Scotto also reported that Wilson’s contract for the rest of this season is guaranteed while the 2024-25 season is partially guaranteed and the 2025-26 season is a team option. Wilson has been getting regular minutes in the rotation in February after showing what he could do for Brooklyn right away with his three-point shooting and hustle plays.

“Just always in the lab,” Ollie continued. “Working on his game, perfecting his game, open to coaching, just a great role model. And yeah, he’s young, but he’s a leader. And, we see those qualities in him. We see the leadership in him. And, he’s just going to continue to develop because he’s open for learning. And he’s eager for learning.”

Wilson was the 51st overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft after spending four years at the University of Kansas where he went a national title and was a consensus All-American. He’s averaging 5.0 points, 2.4 rebounds, and 1.1 assists per game while shooting 46.8% from the field and 43.3% from three-point range in 21 appearances.

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